Can I use greens, such as grass, as a fertilizer for tomatoes?

Question

In my country I don't have fertilizer products, but I know that I can get nitrogen from any greens.

I already knew that I can soak them in water to make liquid fertilizer, but what if I want to make slow release fertilizer? Someone told me just to bury them in the soil. Is that true? Is there a better method to get use of the greens as a fertilizer?

UPDATE: I live in Egypt. I want to grow cherry tomatoes in containers. The green is kind of grass. I don't have space to make compost.

What country are you in? What zone? What green are you talking about? What are you trying to grow? How big is the space? What sort of soil do you have? — Graham Chiu, Feb 07 '16 at 22:21
Often you can get away with burying the green stuff in your garden in the fall, and let the rains take care of decaying the greens into plant food, but this is **Egypt** and I have no idea what your climate cycle or growing cycle is like. — Wayfaring Stranger, Feb 08 '16 at 17:54

score 6 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 08 '16 at 19:48

If you have a household, you can generate enough waste to start some Bokashi bins. You can purchase these from Green Zone Egypt. These create compost in buckets but the process needs to be finished off in soil. So when the bucket is full, and left for 10 days, take some of the material out, and put it into the bottom third of your container. Cover with potting mix. And plant on top. If you don't have potting mix you can use peat mixed with sand.

You can add additional fertiliser by using dilute urine, and complement that with wood ash for the potassium. Studies show this to be a complete fertiliser.

If you can get access to the building roof, see if you can start a roof garden.

http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/how-grow-rooftop-garden-and-wring-pollution-s-neck

score 5 · Answer 2 · answered Feb 08 '16 at 18:50

In my experience, composting in place in a pot does not work well. I would recommend against that option.

Given that you don't have space for a compost pile and will be growing in containers, I think that vermicomposting would be your best option. A worm bin does not need to be large - it can fit in a kitchen cabinet or on a veranda. They're easy to put together and fairly easy to care for (you just need to add your greens and make sure it doesn't dry out. The vermicompost that you get from them really can't be beat. I did a quick search to see whether bins are readily available in Egypt and found this article:

http://www.madamasr.com/sections/environment/small-mighty-earthworms-could-save-egypts-soil

So it seems that while you may not be able to get a commercial bin, there is a good chance you'll be able to find the worms and you can make a bin on your own.

Good alternative to a compost pile! – renesis Feb 09 '16 at 01:52 — renesis, Feb 09 '16 at 01:52

score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Feb 08 '16 at 04:22

3

You should start a compost pile. From the linked source, be aware that the type of material you compost does make a difference in how much nitrogen you get in the end. IE:

fruit & vegetable scraps - Nitrogen

leaves - Carbon

grass clippings - Nitrogen

lawn & garden weeds - Nitrogen

shrub prunings - Carbon

answered Feb 08 '16 at 04:22

renesis

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Sorry I forgot to mention that I don't have enough space to make compost, I updated my question – user2120121 Feb 08 '16 at 08:30

Can I use greens, such as grass, as a fertilizer for tomatoes?

3 Answers3